Atlas the black lab disappeared on a hike near McCullough Gulch south of Breckenridge on June 6, kicking off one of the longest and most complex missions in the six-year history of Summit Lost Pet Rescue.
“We’ve had a few missions that are longer, but this definitely is one for the record books,” volunteer team leader Greg Shoenfeld tells Krystal 93. “(It was) logistically one of the most challenging because of the distances that he was covering and how many people it wound up involving.
Lost in Summit
The journey of Atlas began when he was spooked on a hike with his owners, two part-time Silverthorne residents. He was a rescue dog and had only been with them about three weeks, but a trainer said he was ready to be off leash.
Atlas was enjoying the freedom with the family’s other dog, even getting his first roll in mountain snow, when he ran from a large group coming down the trail. His owner’s attempted to chase him, but he soon disappeared and didn’t come back. They were distraught.
“Usually they’re thinking the worst-case scenario,” Shoenfeld says. “That’s a big part of what we do at Summit Lost Pet Rescue, is teach them best practices of what they need to do as owners to help in the situation.”
Top of that list is to stay calm – and get dirty with the volunteers.
“One of the family members used all their PTO in the first weeks of the search,” Shoenfeld says. “As it went on, they took turns going down to the Front Range and taking care of work and life down there, but the husband or the wife was always around and helping every single day and night.”
Seen in Frisco
Shoenfeld got involved after two or three days, when Atlas was spotted near Frisco, about 18 miles from where he ran off. The dog was seen on trails a quarter-mile from Shoenfeld’s house. He knew them well.
“That was an exciting time,” Shoenfeld remembers. “We thought we would stand a much better chance of catching him in Frisco.”
Multiple volunteers and even random hikers saw Atlas over the next few days. A volunteer who lives on the edge of the woods set up cameras and traps, but the weekend came, and with it the crowds. Once again, Atlas disappeared.
Back in Breck
Shoenfeld’s team worried the dog would cross I-70 and maybe try to find the family home in Silverthorne, but instead he headed back to where his journey began. The next sighting was in Blue River, 13 miles from Frisco, and then another near Peak 8 in Breck.
“The most surprising part was just how quickly he was covering these large expanses,” Shoenfeld says. “(It) always felt like we were a step behind him.”
Captured at Shock Hill
By then it was the first week of July. Atlas had been missing almost 30 days, but volunteers and his owners kept looking, encouraged by reports of the dog on patio cameras. Even the team at Breckenridge Ski Resort kept a watch for a certain black lab on security cameras.
Soon Atlas was spotted more than once near a home in Shock Hill, at the base of Peak 8, not far from the gondola mid-load station. Volunteers contacted the owners and got permission to set traps with cameras on the property.
Finally, on the night of July 6, Atlas returned one last time.
“From there it all went very fast,” Shoenfeld says. “Within just a couple of hours, we had Atlas in our traps and were elated.”
Maybe Atlas was following food the whole time. Shoenfeld is not sure, but the dog was eating something. He lost about 13% of his body weight in 30 days. This past winter, when a dog went missing 42 days, it lost more than half its weight.
Atlas was soon reunited with his family, “skin and bones,” as Shoenfeld describes him, and shy around strangers, but quick to lick your face when he warms up to you.
Perfect record in a busy summer
Summit Lost Pet Rescue still holds a perfect record on found and returned pets, but this year has been unusually busy with more than 230 calls for help.
“Just like the owners, we can’t rest until we see those missions through and completed,”
And the work is not done. Dozens of volunteers are watching closely the woods north of Silverthorne, where another dog has been missing for close to 30 days.